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Saturday, January 27, 2018

I have finally surfaced from my trip to California. I arrived there with a cold, that persisted even until today. I had quite a hoarse throat throughout my classes, but my students were wonderful and so co-operative.

I'm starting to get used to teaching on the road. A suitcase full of class supplies were shipped to CA two weeks ahead of time. We carefully watched the tracking status and breathed a sigh of relief when it showed "ARRIVED". The remainder of supplies and my quilts were loaded into my checked bag, weighing in at 49#, my carry on bag containing all my Mini Mosaic quilts and my personal bag. I have learned to embrace curb side check-in at the airport and gladly tip the sky cap.

This brought a smile to my face as I changed gates in Phoenix.

There was a faculty meeting complete with hors d'oeuvres the evening before classes started. Sitting next to Jenny Doan and other quilting luminaries made me pinch myself. This was going to be an amazing show.

I share with my students at the beginning of each class, my teaching method - after an overview, I break the project down step by step. I don't want to hold anybody back or leave anyone behind. It's a balancing act. This is about their success, not mine. First up was my Silk Skinny Curvalicious quilt class using dupioni silk.

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Tomorrow morning, early in the morning, I'll be leaving the house to head to the airport to fly to California. How early? 4:15AM. That is if the snow doesn't cancel/postpone the flight. I'm hoping the weather people are building up the hype, like they so often do.

I'm excited to be heading west to where the weather is sunny and warm. I was invited to teach at The Road 2 California, the largest quilt show on the West Coast. My career philosophy has been that you just never know which door will open and when. You just need to be open to opportunity. During Quilt Market in October 2016, I presented a class during Schoolhouse about what they could do with this new template called Curvalicious. There were about 30 attendees. We collected their business cards, but I never scrutinized who was there. Fast forward about 7 months when I received an e-mail from Road 2 Ca. When I asked where they had heard of me - it was Schoolhouse!

I am thrilled to be teaching 4 classes. The preparation started 2 months ago. This included putting together kits, preparing step outs, and figuring out how I was going to get it all to California. There is only so much luggage that one person can shepherd through the airport even after paying extra luggage fees. Three weeks ago, we sent a 70 lb suitcase via FedEx to the organizers.

When I was taking classes, I never thought about how much work it was to teach either around the corner or across the country! Is it worth it? You betcha! Meeting and sharing what I've learned and developed with other quilters is one of the driving forces for me. It is pure joy to be with people who speak the same language.

So do I consider myself a teacher or instructor? It's a combination of both. Teaching a technique and then having students take it and use it to make their own creations is one of my goals. My other goal is for students to feel successful.

So on the eve of my leaving for California, I needed a little pouch to hold my important stuff. I love making zippy pouches and I just adore this doog fabric.

and I was so happy to line it with this fabric that looks like Curvvalicious, gievn to me by a friend. And how about that polka dot zipper?

One last housekeeping item. Between my blog, IG and FB, there were over 500 comments. I wish I could send somethig to everyone, but for now ther can only be one winner. The winner of my giveaway celebrating my final project as an Island Batik Ambassador

is Tiffinyquilts. Congratulations Tiffany. As soon as you send me your address, I'll send you a package full of goodies. Thank you to everyonne who entered and who follows my wonderful quilting adventure.

Monday, January 8, 2018

As most of you know, I usually head to Key West for a couple of months during the Winter. This year we are staying home in PA. Of course, it has to be the coldest Winter ever, or so it seems to me. When it is 3 degrees, I just don't want to go outside, but when you need groceries, there is no other choice. It gives me a new appreciation for those of you that live in climates where the temps hit -30 degrees.

I always look for the silver lining. Staying home has given me lots of time for working on my last project as an Island Batik Ambassador. I've been admiring Modern interpretations of traditional quilt blocks that I've seen on social media (Instagram) as well as improvisational blocks. They really intrigue me. For this final project, my fabric collection is called "Blue Moon".
It's quite a coincidence that the theme for this month's project is The Four Seasons and that I was given this icy blue palette of colors.
I love blue and I'm so happy to see this color return. This collection plus white was my playground for these blocks. I started with this block:

Then:

Then:

And:

And a bunch more:

And a few more:

I really enjoyed making these blocks and searching for ideas. But the most fun part for me was rearranging, adding and subtracting to create the final quilt. It's this puzzle aspect of quilting that appeals to me the most. This is the next to last step in my process of putting all of these blocks together. You can see I had to add some fill ins.

I decided to spend a day conquering the tension issues I have had as a newbie with my longarm. Oh boy, do I love YouTube. I watched many videos with instruction ranging from how to oil it, how to load the backing and the quilt, how to baste it and how to thread it. I reached out to other IB Ambassadors asking them about quilting with IB batiks and I have to thank them. Those with longarms encouraged me to do it. And then voila! it worked.

All of the Island Batik Ambassadors are participating in a blog hop to celebrate the culmination of a year's worth of projects. Today Jennifer at The Inquiring Quilter is also sharing her amazing quilt that she created from the Blue Moon collection. It's so interesting to see what the two of us have created using the same fabrics.

To celebrate the blog hop there are 2 giveaways, one hosted by me and one hosted by Island Batik.
I have been trying (key word trying) to do a bit of studio organizing and came across some of my swag from Quilt Market and other odds and ends.

My giveaway is limited to continental US addresses. You can have several opportunities to enter:
1. Leave a comment here with your email address
2. Like me on Facebook or leave a comment if you already have.
3. Follow me or leave a comment on Instagram and for every friend you tag, you'll get another chance
I'll pick a winner on Weds, Jan 17th by noon, EST.

Island Batik is also hosting a giveaway on Rafflecopter. Here's the LINK.

Don't forget to check out the other blogs in the blog hop. You'll have the opportunity to see all of the collections just arriving at your local quilt shops.
Tomorrow:
Carol Steely - Fun Threads
AlisonVermilya - Little Bunny Quilts (Alison has shared the links for the entire blog hop!)
Tina Dillard - Quilt Affection
Jean-Sophie Wood - Sophie Junction

And how did I spend last night's chilly temps while writing this post?

With my puppy on my lap and a warm fire.
Stay warm my friends, enjoy the hop and I hope you win some goodies.